1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blood-vessel-image measuring apparatus that measures, with an ultrasonic probe including an ultrasonic array that emits, from an emission surface thereof, an ultrasonic beam, an image including a blood vessel that underlies a skin of a living being and has an endothelium.
2. Related Art Statement
There has been proposed a blood-vessel-image measuring apparatus that measures, with an ultrasonic array that is lightly contacted with a skin of a living being (e.g., a living person) via a coupling agent such as a jelly and emits an ultrasonic beam toward the skin, an image including a blood vessel underlying the skin. This measuring apparatus is disclosed by, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-245280. In the measuring apparatus disclosed by this document, an ultrasonic probe supported by a free end of a robot arm is lightly pressed on a portion of the person to be inspected, so as to obtain a transverse cross-section image (i.e., a short-axis image) of the blood vessel under the skin and/or a longitudinal cross-section image (i.e., a long-axis image) of the blood vessel.